Book Write-Up: The Monkhood of All Believers, by Greg Peters

Greg Peters. The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality. Baker Academic, 2018. See here to purchase the book.

Greg Peters teaches medieval and spiritual theology at Biola University. He has also been a visiting professor at Saint John’s School of Theology and is a research professor of Monastic Studies and Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary.

The larger theme of this book is that monastic principles can and should guide the spirituality of Christians who are not officially monks. Such principles include devotion to God through prayer, liturgy, asceticism, solitude, and Christian community. Peters presents the thought of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians on this issue, and on the principles of monasticism themselves, ranging from the patristic period to the twentieth century. The New Testament forms the foundation for the monastic principles and the concept of institutional monasticism. Acts 2-4, in which the early Christians devote themselves to the apostle’s teaching, prayer, and fellowship as well as share their possessions, looms large as a historical inspiration for Christian monasticism.

The assets of this book include its scholarly rigor, its breadth and its depth, and its edifying effect, as the concept of devotion to God unites the different Christian thinkers whom Greg profiles. Among the most interesting and compelling discussions in the book are Jerome’s defense of scholarly work as actual work, the divinizing effect of liturgy on  sinful believers, and the monastic underpinnings of marriage, which provides boundaries for human sexual desire.

There are recurring themes in this book. First, there is the concept of the priesthood of all believers. All Christians believe in this, on some level, even though Roman Catholicism also has an institutional priesthood. Second, there is the concept of calling, that a Christian’s everyday occupation can be a way to glorify God and to serve God and others. Protestants stressed this, and the concept came to find a place among Catholic thinkers. There is also the question of whether institutional monasticism is meritorious and provides practitioners with a faster route to heaven. Luther inveighed against this idea, believing that it contradicts justification by grace through faith alone.

I have mild critiques, based on my own reading of this book, and other readers may have a different impression; I myself may gain a different impression were I to reread the book. First, Peters perhaps could have explained more why asceticism was and is important. Cannot a person be devoted to God, without going hungry and refraining from sex? My impression, from other scholars I have read and heard, is that there was a multifold rationale for Christian asceticism. Asceticism can remove distractions from one’s relationship with God, but there was also a belief that the flesh alienates one from the spiritual realm and that the appetites are self-centered. The goal of decreasing distractions is one with which I can identify. I have some difficulty, however, accepting the latter two assumptions (i.e., appetites as alienating from the spirit and selfish) as authoritative and normative.

Second, Peters could have explained better why Luther believed that seeing monasticism as meritorious conflicted with justification by grace through faith alone. Roman Catholicism, after all, did not believe that only monks went to heaven, for ordinary Christians could, too. Yet, they thought that institutionalized monasticism could provide a faster track to heaven, as the increased devotion to God was meritorious, and monasticism provided an opportunity to suppress the flesh, which all Christians, on some level, are to do. Some questions enter my mind. Luther obviously had problems with the concept of merit, thinking that it detracted from the importance of divine grace. Yet, would he deny that some Christians will receive more rewards in the afterlife than other Christians? Many Protestants today say that all Christians are saved, but some Christians will receive more rewards, based on their good works. There is also the question of how Catholics believed that ordinary Christians could be saved, even though they, on some level, indulged the passions, by not being complete ascetics. Purgatory may be a significant aspect of the answer to this question: ordinary believers will eventually get to heaven, but they will need to be purified in purgatory.

Third, while the book often spoke about the importance of Christians incorporating monastic principles into their life, it was a little thin about what this practically looks like. It does describe what took place in institutional monasticism, however, along with Clement of Alexandria’s strict depiction of asceticism.

Notwithstanding these critiques, this book is rich, informative, beautifully written, and edifying.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My review is honest.